Cinema Eye Honors Give Top Prizes to ‘Cameraperson’ and ‘Making a Murderer’

Kirsten Johnson’s “Cameraperson” and the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” were the top winners at the 10th Annual Cinema Eye Honors on Wednesday night in New York City.

“Cameraperson,” an impressionistic memoir of sorts assembled from unused footage that cinematographer Johnson had shot for other director’s movies, was named the best documentary feature of 2016.

Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos’ Netflix series “Making a Murderer,” which was one of the television events of the past year, was named the best nonfiction filmmaking for television.

The Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based organization devoted to nonfiction filmmaking, held its ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, with director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams,” “The Interrupters”) hosting.

Most of the Cinema Eye winners, including “Cameraperson,” O.J.: Made in America,” “Tower” and “Hooligan Sparrow,” are also on the 15-film shortlist from which the Oscar documentary nominees will be drawn.

Cinema Eye nominations are done by committees made up predominantly of film-festival programmers. The final vote is made by 200-300 filmmakers, distributors, programmers, grantors, writers, critics, sales agents and publicists who specialize in nonfiction film, along with past and current Cinema Eye nominees and jurors. (Full disclosure: I am a voter.)

Since the first Cinema Eye ceremony in 2008, only three films have won the Best Documentary Oscar and also the Cinema Eye award: “Man on Wire,” “The Cove” and “Citizenfour.”